Despite Concerns, Plans for Higgins/Mannheim Development Approved

Plans for a major development at Higgins and Mannheim roads that includes a parking garage, restaurant and hotel moved one step closer to becoming a reality on Monday. Planning Commission members voted, 3-0, in favor of approving a temporary site plan, and recommending to city council the developer’s proposal for a special zoning classification that outlines construction criteria called a planned unit development.

The proposed development includes a parking garage with 2,350 stalls with shuttle bus service to O’Hare International Airport, a 4,000 square-foot restaurant with an option to add a drive-through lane and a hotel to be built at a later time.

The approval and recommendation followed a series of questions from commissioners to the developer about the viability of the plans, a multitude of details surrounding variations in code the developer is requesting, and, most notably — traffic.

Earlier:

Traffic Study

Alex Perez, planning commissioner, said he was concerned about the traffic the development would generate. Perez said he lived in that vicinity, and, at times, it can take 45 minutes to travel one mile as it is today.

“I’m concerned about traffic because on Higgins, if it’s packed, Mannheim can be a big problem for the rest of Des Plaines,” Perez said. “Another thing, if we have emergency vehicles, [and the roadways] are packed, it will be very difficult for them to [get] to emergencies.”

Javier Millan, of Kenig, Lingdgren, O’Hare, Aboona, Inc., based in Rosemont, the traffic consultant hired by the developer, TPS Des Plaines LLC, also called The Parking Spot, told the commissioners, according to data collected in their traffic study, the majority of the traffic would occur during “off-peak” times at 6:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

“During the peak hours, it still generates traffic, but not at the same rate as let’s say 7 p.m. or 3 p.m. when traffic in the area is lower,” Millan said.

Higgins/Mannheim Road Construction

Additionally, Millan said, beginning 2013, the Illinois Department of Transportation has plans to improve Higgins and Mannheim roads.

The state is planning to widen Higgins Road and configure it with dual left turn lanes, two through lanes and an exclusive right turn lane going both ways, Millan said. The north leg of Mannheim will also be reconfigured to include dual left-turn lanes.

“That will certainly ease a little bit of the congestion that you see today,” Millan said. “When there’s no dual left-turn lanes [cars back up] all the way into the through-lanes.”

Allstate Arena, O’Hare Expansion

Perez asked Millan if they had considered the congestion created when there are events at the Allstate Arena, and the Rosemont police give preference to traffic traveling to the arena.

Millan said during special events at Allstate Arena, drivers could still expect to experience delays.

“The improvements for special events can help up to a certain point, but in a special situation like that you’re probably still going to see some of the cues that you see today,” Millan said.

Perez asked Millan if they had taken into consideration of their traffic analysis the proposed O’Hare expansion and two new hotels in Rosemont.

“There was a growth factor included in [the traffic study], so we didn’t analyze this in a vacuum; we did increase the traffic volumes,” Millan said.

“See, the thing is, if we approve this now, and then we’ve got the problems another 10 years with traffic [it’s not good] for the residents,” Perez said.

Millan said if the development were to be typical retail, the impact on traffic during peak hours would be greater than in The Parking Spot’s proposal.

“So, just keep that in mind because I do acknowledge what you are talking about,” Millan said. “I have seen it. In terms of operation, like I said, they are improving the intersection to the maximum that they can.”

City Interest

Michael Bartholomew, , also attended the meeting. He told the commission he had worked on this project last year as the city’s economic and community development director.

“And I can say as the economic and development director and as the city manager, this project is really critically important to the city,” Bartholomew said.

Bartholomew said the property had been dormant for a number of years.

“We’ve had a couple developments that have come along, started and failed, started and failed,” Bartholomew said. “We have great confidence in this group they’ll be able to complete the project, as opposed to getting half-started, and then not finishing it. So the idea is to get the project started, get it finished, get it operating, get it generating revenue for the people here in Des Plaines.”

Perez said he was OK with approving the plans, but wanted “some adjustments to the traffic issues.”

“I’m not 100 percent satisfied with the traffic report,” Perez said.

Yi also expressed reservations, particularly in regard to all the code variances the developer is requested. Yi said he voted in favor of the recommendation despite his concerns because the process allows for another opportunity to review the proposal.

The temporary site plan, which includes a plat resubdivision into six parcels, was approved by the commission on Monday. The agreement the city will have with the developer for construction, also called a preliminary planned unit development, or preliminary PUD, will go through two readings. City council will vote on it at its next meeting, and both the commission and city council will vote on the proposal in a second reading.

2005 = $10 Million, 2012 = $1 Million

At the time, Jason Slowinski, former city manager, said the property was appraised for $3-4 million. The city borrowed $10.4 million to purchase it, and restructured the debt in 2009 so that the principal and interest would be due in 2013, the Daily Herald reported.

In a separate interview with Patch, John Lyons, vice president of development for TPS Parking Management LLC, based in Chicago, said the low price was a significant factor in the viability of the development. He said the market value of the land when the city bought it, before the recession during the peak of the land acquisition market.

“They realized the market value of the land was significantly less than what they paid,” Lyons said. “And then I do think we got even a discount off of what the current market is because the city has a long-term view of this property. To look myopically at just what they’re going to get on the land, and not look at the jobs it will create for the city, the property taxes it will create for the city, the parking tax that we agreed to — it’s multiples of that $10 million dollars.”

Lyons said if everything went smoothly, they expected to have the parking garage and restaurant open sometime during the first quarter of 2014, and the hotel in, perhaps, 5-10 years.

The approximately five-acre swath of land is located in the city’s tax increment finance district 6, created in 2001.

Tax increment financing funds are created when a local government freezes the tax base on properties within a certain area. All new property taxes in that district, which are generated by an increase in property value since the year the TIF started, are put into a special fund established for redevelopment projects within the district.

In February Mayor Martin Moylan said “We negotiated what was best for the residents; we turned a loser TIF into a winner.”

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